aberg@math.rutgers.edu (Hans Aberg) (02/04/89)
I got some interesting comments on Interleaf in the mail. First one should remember that the price tag is $2,495. My impression is that Interleaf is good for what it is designed for in the first place, namely *typesetting*. As a program to generate what is supposed to be typeset, in other words *technical wordprocessing*, Interleaf seems to be rather inferior. This is best expressed by Steve Leeke (leeke@mips.csc.ti.com): > I've used ILP quite a bit and there are several things it can not do > and for those reasons I use LaTeX (by using Textures) on the Mac. ILP > on the Mac has no automatic foonotes or endnotes. It has no built-in > bibliography support and no built-in equation building. > > It is the premier tool for publishing, but at a price of not > supporting some basic complex document attributes. Then there are lots of interesting vaporware we all hope for. But since the frustration might be to severe, I exclude any report on that. Hans Aberg
sysop@stech.UUCP (Jan Harrington) (02/13/89)
in article <Feb.3.19.44.28.1989.16123@math.rutgers.edu>, aberg@math.rutgers.edu (Hans Aberg) says: > > > I got some interesting comments on Interleaf in the mail. > > First one should remember that the price tag is $2,495. > > My impression is that Interleaf is good for what it is designed > for in the first place, namely *typesetting*. > > As a program to generate what is supposed to be typeset, in other > words *technical wordprocessing*, Interleaf seems to be rather > inferior. > > This is best expressed by Steve Leeke (leeke@mips.csc.ti.com): > >> I've used ILP quite a bit and there are several things it can not do >> and for those reasons I use LaTeX (by using Textures) on the Mac. ILP >> on the Mac has no automatic foonotes or endnotes. It has no built-in >> bibliography support and no built-in equation building. >> Well, it's not quite true that it won't do footnotes. Actually, auto- numbered footnotes are easy. Just create a footnote frame and add a number for an auto-number string. It's only one step more complicated than managing footnotes in FullWrite. >> It is the premier tool for publishing, but at a price of not >> supporting some basic complex document attributes. > ILP has one major plus - it is relatively bug free! The only product that comes close in functionality (i.e., complete WYWIWYG environment, drawing tools, excellent word processing, flexible placement of frames (sidebars), etc.) is FullWrite Professional, and that product is so full of bugs to make it unusuable for large projects. A lot of people like Tex and its variants, but the doggone thing isn't WYSIWYG and I therefore don't find it an acceptable tool for the way I work. I've been through the whole route trying to find a package for writing and layout. PageMaker and RSG are fine for newsletters and manuals, but since graphics are placed manually and not anchored to text, they aren't well suited for dynamic document layout. Instead, they work best when used after all changes to the document are made and it only needs to be laid out on the page. That's not the way I work. I do layout as a write and want figures to float along as I add text and figures at any point in the document. I want figure and footnote numbers to readjust automatically. For a while after FullWrite came out, I thought that the ultimate tool had arrived. Then I started pushing it to handle book-length projects - documents of 40 to 60 pages. Then the corrupted files started showing up. Believe me, when you've lost the same file three times and had to reenter it from hard copy, the $2120 that I paid for Interleaf seems like a bargain. There are some things that Interleaf doesn't do that it should (are you guys at Interleaf listening?). These include: 1. The ability to import from the Mac clipboard (would make life easier...) rather than just ILP's clipboard 2. Support for mirrored layouts (FW does this) 3. Support for multiple monitors (the boot monitor is all you get) 4. Ability to run off a drive other than the boot drive ... and a bunch of other things to make it adhere a bit more closely to the standard Mac environment. No, I don't have any ties to Interleaf. I'm just a customer who has been very frustrated with other products and am finally satisfied. Jan Harrington, sysop Scholastech Telecommunications husc6!stech!sysop > Then there are lots of interesting vaporware we all hope for. But > since the frustration might be to severe, I exclude any report on > that. > > Hans Aberg